Residents of two Glasgow tower blocks are faced with having to pay up to £10m to replace cladding similar to that which contributed to the blaze at Grenfell Tower, in London.
More than 300 owners of private flats in the Glasgow Harbour development are awaiting the results of a survey which will establish how much it will cost to remove and replace the aluminium composite cladding on the roof and external cladding on the lift shafts of their buildings.
However the announcement last week that the Government will pay £6m to replace similar cladding panels on two Glasgow hospitals has left residents expecting to have to pay an even larger sum.
The two blocks affected, at Castlebank Drive and Meadowside Quay, were identified after the Scottish Government ordered councils to compile data on any domestic buildings over 18 metres high which included Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) in their construction.
ACM became notorious after the Grenfell Tower inferno last June in which 71 people died. Residents of the Glasgow blocks have been told the suspect cladding has no flame-retardant properties, and fire wardens are currently patrolling the buildings around the clock.
The total bill could come to as much as £30,000 per property. Speaking to the BBC, Paul Kirkland, who owns one of the affected homes, said: “As we were told what the cost might be and that we would have to foot it, I was absolutely furious. I am absolutely dismayed that the thing has gone on this long and we are on the hook for it.”
Taylor Woodrow Construction, the company which built the blocks said it had met the standards in place at the time of construction and the firm no longer had any involvement. In a statement, it said: “We recognise that the situation at Glasgow Harbour is a cause for concern for both owners and residents. While we do not have any ownership or legal interest in the development, we are committed to working with all the parties involved in finding a solution.”
Taylor Wimpey and Glasgow City Council are both contributing to the cost of the survey of the properties which is to confirm the cost of remedying the problem cladding.
The factors, Hacking and Paterson, said they were trying to help 341 individual owners resolve the situation.
A rule change means that the aluminium cladding used on the Glasgow Harbour properties, which met planning requirements on flame retardation in 2001, is no longer deemed acceptable for domestic properties.
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “ The key relevant change in the new building standards system in 2005... was the guidance that external cladding on such properties now had to be non-combustible. This introduced a new testing regime which considered the entire panel, rather than just the surface properties.”
Glasgow MSP Pauline McNeill has written to Housing Minister Kevin Stewart over fears residents will be abandoned. “It is really hard to hold anyone to account for this as the buildings went up before this cladding was banned. But it is grossly unjust,” she said. “I would hope there could be some discussion with the companies involved, the property owners and the city council about providing as much support as possible to the residents, who have become the victims of something they could never have foreseen.”
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